BBC Ends Its Open Championship Run Early

Sky Sports will now take over coverage in the UK along with producing other feeds starting in 2016, reports Sky Sports.

In the United States, ESPN is under contract to broadcast the 2016 Open Championship before handing The Open over to NBC/Golf Channel in 2017.

Comments

[gaelgowfer]

End of an era ... sigh.

[EdinburghGolfer]

Too many people view the BBC's coverage through rose-tinted nostalgic spectacles, they have been left behind the coverage was stale and stuck in the dark ages. This year with the Monday finish they made minimal effort with their coverage on the Monday and blamed it on external contractors e.g.. cameramen etc.
Sky Sports will do an infinitely better job.

[Ian C]

RIP golf. It will slowly die away as a mass sport now, similar to cricket and end up as a niche interest like speedway or ice hockey.

[bs]

@edinburghgolfer - better to view the coverage through rose-tinted spectacles than not to see any live coverage at all, which will be the case in my family once it moves to Sky. If there is an effect on participation in Golf it won't be for a few years, when it may be too late to do anything about it.

[Easingwold]

Bs, get an android box, stream Sky Sports for free off Mobdro ...Golf Channel too if you want.

[EdinburghGolfer]

A serious golf fan would have Sky Sports but if you only watch once a year then cest la vie - of course you will have the option to watch the entire Open on Sky Sports via NowTV for £10.99. The argument that people always use of not wanting to subscribe to Sky is misleading, you dont have to its the equivalent of pay as you go - signup to NowTV for the the week of the Open only.

Golf participation has always been directly related to the economy and that has been proven, it has nothing to do with exposure on TV, another misleading argument.

Sky Sports is good value and a better option than wasting time hunting for free streams. Looking forward to modern coverage.

[Media Driven]

One beneficial thing to come of this is Peter Alliss can and should play a huge role on ESPN's final Open broadcast. Let him handle huge chunks of play by play including the finish (where he excels). I'm sure Mike Tirico would step aside for the moment.

[Easingwold]

Edingburgh golfer, I agree it's good value. But I dint need to hunt for free streams, and it saves me £ 75.00 a month, more than my annual golf fees at my club. That's great value in my book.

[gaelgowfer]

@ EdinburghGolfer ... no, nothing to do with rose-tinted nostalgia but that there were no adverts and all day coverage extending well into the evening in the early rounds.

[EdinburghGolfer]

The no adverts thing is a smokescreen, you don't see more golf just pictures of the surrounding areas, this year it was constant shots of the beach at St Andrews. I compared the BBC coverage against an international feed (with adverts) and there was no real difference in the amount of actual golf shown. Taking into account the Monday finish BBC viewers saw significantly less golf than their American counterparts.

So many misleading and ill-informed arguments always rolled out for this debate.

Sky have a dedicated channel and will show it all, their coverage will be vastly superior as they have significantly more expertise in this area.

Free streams are always vastly inferior in quality and will be funding all sorts of illegal activity. Sky Sports bundle is available from £45 a month so you are oveerestimating.

[Peter Norrie]

Sky do a pretty good job but the BBC were hard to beat. Thursday and Friday coverage started at 9am and went through until 7:30pm - that's 10.5 hours coverage without a single commercial break! I know Peter Alliss is probably past his sell-by date, but he's still the best in the business.

[Easingwold]

We all grew up with Peter Alliss, the BBC would have folded with his departure anyway. Sky do a very good job in the media/ advertising age the BBC struggles to compete against.

[John]

Does that mean the international feed on WatchESPN is no more? I thought that was the best part of ESPN's Open Championship coverage. BBC feed, no commercials.

[Tee vee troller]

Disagree that Alliss is past his sell-by date. Comparable to Vin Scully, the preeminent baseball announcer who hasn't lost a step in his mid-to-late 80s.

ESPN has only used him for short cameos, paired with Tirico and Strange or whoever. He is at his best just prattling on by himself, maybe calling on the on-course folks occasionally (there is a real affection when he calls on Judy). I do hope he gets an expanded role on ESPN's last Open and that the egos of ESPN's established announcers (especially Mike Tirico) will not stand in the way of letting him go out in a blaze of glory. No one brings a champion home up the final stretch of an Open like Alliss. What perspective!!

I know he has his critics who say he's out of touch but they've been saying that for 30 years, since Faldo-Leadbetter complained he didn't visit the practice tee!!

[Doozer Dog]

The BBC commentators were nothing more than a conga line of suckholes, an old boys club of never-weres.

If embracing all that is twee and amateurish in televised coverage is what you are into, poor you.

[Teevee]

Perhaps ESPN will follow suit and pass off its R&A events to NBC a year earlier than scheduled